This was a shower thought so please bear with me. I genuinely canโt think of a Norris drive that instantly comes to mind when people talk about a driver at his absolute peak. What exactly are his fans pointing at when they yap about his bRiLLiAnCe??
"At least we have a championship." // "Thank god we had last year." // "My driver has a trophy."
First of all, thatโs embarrassing. Even drivers who are ranked lower on the current grid have at least one moment that everybody thinks of when they talk about them. Oscarโs Qatar sprint race in 2023 before they had a rocket ship, Pierre in Monza 2020 and that podium with Ocon in Brazil 2024 (stellar performance from them and Max btw), Franco at Williams, Ollieโs debut in Jeddah etc.
Yet when it comes to Fraudorris, itโs surprisingly difficult to pinpoint an iconic drive that doesnโt involve a safety car, team orders, or him begging for help on radio; his teammateโs help, more often than not. Strip all those away, and the reigning champion is... mediocre on his best days.
Lmao, I'm glad I'm not the only one who analyzes f1 in the shower ๐ญ Anyway, I fully agree. Like, he genuinely has NO masterclasses whatsoever. His best performance was Mexico '25, but even that was underwhelming considering he was literally in the fastest car and had no competition. Like, wow he didn't crash! OR bottle the start! How brilliant. And I genuinely don't know what his fans are referring to when calling him brilliant and a legend. It literally confuses me. And I've argued with so many Lando fans, and they can never provide ANY examples of Lando driving a respectable drive, so either they know he's mid and don't care, or they fsr think his mid-ass drivers are "legendary". Because seriously, it's like every single Lando fan started watching f1 yesterday; all their arguments consist of "Mark Webber sabotaged Lando's car" or something equally as dumb, which just proves that even his die hard fans can't defend his shitty driving.
Bro "At least we have a championship" is the most accurate thing I've ever read. They ALWAYS say that ffs. Idk whether to laugh or cry, because so WHAT???? It's not like he earned it, omg. I have literally seen them throw that phrase around god knows how many times, and it's not like it's HELPING their case. It's genuinely idiotic, to say the least. I once saw someone say that his wdc was unearned, and a Lando fan literally replied "at least he won it, who cares how he did it" and HOLY SHIT??? Everyone cares. They cannot be fr.
No seriously. It doesn't matter if those drivers don't have a wdc like he does, their standout performances were literally better than anything he's ever done. Take Esteban's win for instance: done in a slow car, nowhere near the top. Lando has NEVER done that. I say this every single day, but Lando's first win was Miami '24, aka the time when he literally had the fastest car. Basically, he physically CAN'T win without the fastest car, which we see more proof of every day. Not to mention that Miami '24 was lucky af due to a safety car, but whatever. Your examples are spot on, because I can't even imagine Lando pulling performances like that off. And I agree, all these performances were truly amazing and impressive, and the fact that Lando is ranked higher than some of these drivers is so insane when he hasn't (and never will) achieve what they have achieved. The list goes on of drivers' performances that made people wow and see them for who they truly are, that showed they deserved their seat in f1. I'm still waiting for a Lando performance that is on par with these.
I genuinely cannot agree more with that last point. It's not a coincidence that everyone's mind goes blank when prompted to give an example of a truly stellar performance from Norris. Because there simply isn't. Exactly as you said, most of his wins were literally luck anyway (Miami '24: safety car. Australia '25: team orders. Silverstone '25: penalty to teammate. The list goes on. He just can't drive without luck or the team on his side, no matter what). And the fact that some Lando fans have the nerve and audacity to say that Oscar is a bad teammate is wild to me, when he has been nothing but a pawn in Lando's wdc game, even when he shouldn't have been. He was so goddamn supportive even when he was in the lead of the wdc! Without these Lando would actually have nothing. I doubt he would even have a race win if it weren't for his fucking rocket ship, either. Lando was just lucky in his circumstances, unfortunately, and it's so sad that future generations will remember him as a wdc rather than what he actually is: a fraud and a bottler.